ISSN:0905-6947    

DOI:10.1111/j.1600-0668.1993.01-34.x

出版商:Munksgaard International Publishers    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractIn developed and developing countries, indoor air pollutionis gaining increasing prominence as a public health problem. Time‐activity studies and exposure surveys have shown the dominant contributions of indoor environments to population exposures for many pollutants. Mounting epidemiological evidence documents adverse health effects of indoor pollutants and risk assessments indicate that indoor carcinogens may contribute substantially to the population's burden of lung and other cancers. Unacceptable indoor air quality has also been identified as a common cause of symptoms. This paper addresses the public health problem posed by indoor air pollution, offering a schema for categorizing adverse health effects of indoor air pollution, and considers the complexiry of estimating the full scope of the probl

ISSN:0905-6947    

DOI:10.1111/j.1600-0668.1993.00002.x

出版商:Munksgaard International Publishers    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractEpidemiologic research into the causes of non‐specific symptoms among office workers has produced a variety of conflicting findings which are difficult to synthesize. This paper first discusses methodologic issues important in the interpretation of epidemiologic studies, and then reviews the findings of 32 studies of 37 factors potentially related to office worker symptoms. Among environmental factors assessed, there were generally consistent findings associating increased symptoms with air‐conditioning, carpets, more workers in a space, VDT use, and ventilation rates at or below 10 liters/second/person. Studies with particularly strong designs found decreased symptoms associated with low ventilation rate, short‐term humidification, negative ionization, and improved office cleaning, although studies reviewed showed little consistency of findings for humidification and ionization. Relatively strong studies associated high temperature and low relative humidity with increased symptoms, whereas less strong studies were not consistent. Among personal factors assessed, there were generally consistent findings associating increased symptoms with female gender, job stress/dissatisfaction, and allergies/asthma. For other environmental or personal factors assessed, findings were too inconsistent or sparse for current interpretation, and there were no findings from strong studies. Overall evidence suggested that work related symptoms among office workers were relatively common, and that some of these symptoms represented preventable physiologic effects of environmental exposures or conditions. Future research on this problem should include blind experimental and case‐control studies, using improved measurements of both environmental exposures and health

ISSN:0905-6947    

DOI:10.1111/j.1600-0668.1993.00003.x

出版商:Munksgaard International Publishers    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractThere is evidence that sick building syndrome (SBS) is caused, in part, by indoor surface pollution (ISP): contaminants such as dust, fibres and micro‐organisms, deposited on or in surfaces in buildings. A study is described which clarifies the relative importance of a number of possible causes of SBS in a single building. The building, which had a high initial prevalence of SBS symptoms, was used in a doubleblind controlled intervention study with weekly symptom questionnaires. The four interventions were: ventilation system cleaning, air filtration, hot‐water extraction cleaning of chairs and carpets, plus high grade filter vacuuming and dusting, and dust mite treatment (application of liquid nitrogen). Only the last two interventions brought about a reduction in symptoms. It is concluded that cleaning which effectively reduces ISP can reduce SBS symptoms. This may be related to the presence of dust mites in furnishings. Improved cleaning may entail better cleaning specifications and/or consideration of requirements for cleaning when selecting and positioning office furniture. If ISP and the temporary local pollution levels created by it are a problem, then monitoring of ambient conditions (by instruments or by human assessors) will not adequately represent the conditions to which occupants are exp

ISSN:0905-6947    

DOI:10.1111/j.1600-0668.1993.00004.x

出版商:Munksgaard International Publishers    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractTwelve public office buildings were selected for a study of relationships between worker's health symptoms and a number of building, workspace, job, and personal factors. Three buildings were naturally ventilated, three were mechanically ventilated, and six were air conditioned. Information on the prevalences of work‐related symptoms, demographics, and job and personal factors were determined via a questionnaire completed by 880 occupants. Several indoor environmental parameters were measured. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate associations between symptom prevalences and features of the buildings, indoor environments, jobs, and personal factors. A substantial fraction of the occupants in these typical office buildings reported frequent work‐related symptoms. The occupants of the mechanically ventilated and air conditioned buildings had sipifcantly more symptoms than occupants of the naturally ventilated buildings after adjustment for confounding factors. Increased prevalences of some symptoms were associated with several job and workspace factors including: presence of carpet, increased use of carbonless copy paper and photocopiers, space sharing, and distance from a wi

ISSN:0905-6947    

DOI:10.1111/j.1600-0668.1993.00005.x

出版商:Munksgaard International Publishers    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractThe relative importance of sensory air pollution, thermal load and noise was studied under controlled conditions in two identical environmental chambers. In one chamber subjects were exposed to various levels of either thermal load or poor indoor air quality. For each condition tested in this chamber, the subjects were exposed to a number of noise levels in an adjacent chamber with neutral thermal conditions and good indoor air quality in order to determine a noise level causing the same degree of discomfort. A total of 68 comparisons of the conditions in the two chambers were made by the same group of 16 subjects after one‐minute exposure in each chamber. In the operative temperature range of 23–29°C, a 1°C change in operative temperature was found to have the same effect on human comfort as a change in perceived air quality of 2.4 decipol or a change in noise level of 3.9 dB. For levels of perceived air quality up to 10 decipol, a 1 ‐decipol change in perceived air quality had the same effect on human comfort as a change in noise level of 1.2 dB. A relationship between traffic noise level and percentage dissatisfied was est

ISSN:0905-6947    

DOI:10.1111/j.1600-0668.1993.00006.x

出版商:Munksgaard International Publishers    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractEmissions from freshly applied paints and other coatings can cause elevated indoor concentrations of vapor‐phase organics. Methods are needed to determine the emission rates over time for these products. Some success has been achieved using simple first‐order decay models to evaluate data from small dynamic test chambers. While such empirical approaches may be useful for assessing the emission potmial of indoor sources, a more fundamental approach is needed to fully elucidate the relevant mass transfer processes. As a first step, a simple model based on boundary layer theory has been developed. In this model, the mass transfer rate is assumed to be controlled by the boundary layer mass transfer coefficient, the saturation vapor pressure of the material being emitted, and the mass of volatile material remaining in the source at any point in time. Static and dynamic chamber tests and test house experiments were conducted to obtain model validation data, Preliminary validaion results indicated that the model can be applied to different products with similar solvents. The model provides a better fit to chamber‐derived emissions data than the empirical first‐order decay model, especially over the decaying portion of the concentration vs. ti

ISSN:0905-6947    

DOI:10.1111/j.1600-0668.1993.00007.x

出版商:Munksgaard International Publishers    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractA waterborne paint was applied to tin plated steel sheets with three different film thicknesses. The emission of volatile and semivolaile organic compounds ((S) VOCs) from the samples was measured in small climatic chambers under standard conditions over a two‐week period. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of the film thickness on the emission rate decay. First order decay models, including sink effects for the high boiling (S) VOCs, were fitted to the concentration versus time data. The results showed that the first order rate constants decrease with increasing film thickness. In uddition, the results indicated that the emissions of the (S)VOCs in the waterborne paint film seemed to be controlled by evaporation. The thicknesses of paint films used in climatic chamber tests to estimate emission rates for product compurison or emission prediction must be known in order to prevent erroneous conclusio

ISSN:0905-6947    

DOI:10.1111/j.1600-0668.1993.00008.x

出版商:Munksgaard International Publishers    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractThe adsorption of vapours of different volatility and polarity on three materials widely used indoors (carpet, gypsum board, wall coating) has been investigated in small test chambers, in order to study methodological aspects and to estimate the importance of the phenomenon for human exposure assessments. The output of the models used, with rate constants describing two different sinks, is discussed. The experiments show that: a) adsorption seems to occur to at least two different sinks with different rate constants in the same material; b) generally adsorption increases with the boiling point of the compounds, but it depends also on other physicochemical properties, such as the chemical functionality, as well as on the sorbent material: e.g. the two alkanes n‐decane and n‐dodecane show a higher k3/k4ratio on carpet than on gypsum board, whereas the opposite is observed for the two alcohols 2‐butoxyethanol and 2‐ethy

ISSN:0905-6947    

DOI:10.1111/j.1600-0668.1993.00009.x

出版商:Munksgaard International Publishers    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

AbstractFloor dust from nine city hall office buildings was separated into fiber and particulate fractions and analyzed for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and total VOC (TVOC) by thermal desorption/high resolution gas chromatography (HRGC). Components were identified by HRGC/mass spectroscopy (MS). Principal component analysis was applied to VOC emission profiles revealing similarities between buildings and correlations between profiles and SBS symptoms of mucous membrane irritation and “concentration difficulty”. While the dominant pattern in emission profiles was not correlated with SBS irritation complaints, partial least squares analysis in latent variables (PLS analysis) identified VOCs for which peak areas were correlated with SBS irritation complaints and the CNS Complaint, “concentration diffi

ISSN:0905-6947    

DOI:10.1111/j.1600-0668.1993.00010.x

出版商:Munksgaard International Publishers    

年代:1993

数据来源: WILEY